The Great Battle

The year 645. The Tang emperor Li Shimin enters Goguryeo with an army of two hundred thousand. Ansi fortress lies on the road; its commander Yang Man-chun is on bad terms with his own central government and has five thousand men. No help will come from the capital. The siege lasts eighty eight days. Kim Kwang-sik directs. Jo In-sung plays Yang Man-chun, with Nam Joo-hyuk, Park Sung-woong and Bae Sung-woo in the cast. The siege is a real historical event. Ansi is among the most cited defences in Korean history and ended with the Tang army withdrawing; the commander's name is not clear in the sources and belongs largely to legend. The weight of the film is in the fighting. The techniques of siege are shown in detail: the ram, the siege tower, tunnelling and the building of an earthen ramp, and most of the narrative rests on those stages. It was among the most expensive Korean films of its year and uses computer effects extensively. The weakness is the characters. No strand outside the siege develops, the romantic passages are forced, and the enemy commander is one dimensional. The nationalist register is pronounced; the film builds the defence as a narrative of national resistance. Who it is for: viewers who like historical war films and siege narratives. Who it is not for: the character writing is weak, it runs long, and the history rests largely on legend.